1. Technical Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to wireless communication systems and more particularly to radio frequency integrated circuits and radio frequency printed circuit boards used in such wireless communication systems.
2. Description of Related Art
Communication systems are known to support wireless and wire lined communications between wireless and/or wire lined communication devices. Such communication systems range from national and/or international cellular telephone systems to the Internet to point-to-point in-home wireless networks. Each type of communication system is constructed, and hence operates, in accordance with one or more communication standards. For instance, wireless communication systems may operate in accordance with one or more standards including, but not limited to, IEEE 802.11, Bluetooth, advanced mobile phone services (AMPS), digital AMPS, global system for mobile communications (GSM), code division multiple access (CDMA), local multi-point distribution systems (LMDS), multi-channel-multi-point distribution systems (MMDS), and/or variations thereof.
Depending on the type of wireless communication system, a wireless communication device, such as a cellular telephone, two-way radio, personal digital assistant (PDA), personal computer (PC), laptop computer, home entertainment equipment, et cetera communicates directly or indirectly with other wireless communication devices. For direct communications (also known as point-to-point communications), the participating wireless communication devices tune their receivers and transmitters to the same channel or channels (e.g., one of the plurality of radio frequency (RF) carriers of the wireless communication system) and communicate over that channel(s). For indirect wireless communications, each wireless communication device communicates directly with an associated base station (e.g., for cellular services) and/or an associated access point (e.g., for an in-home or in-building wireless network) via an assigned channel. To complete a communication connection between the wireless communication devices, the associated base stations and/or associated access points communicate with each other directly, via a system controller, via the public switch telephone network, via the Internet, and/or via some other wide area network.
For each wireless communication device to participate in wireless communications, it includes a built-in radio transceiver (i.e., receiver and transmitter) or is coupled to an associated radio transceiver (e.g., a station for in-home and/or in-building wireless communication networks, RF modem, etc.). As is known, the transmitter includes a data modulation stage, one or more intermediate frequency stages, and a power amplifier. The data modulation stage converts raw data into baseband signals in accordance with a particular wireless communication standard. The one or more intermediate frequency stages mix the baseband signals with one or more local oscillations to produce RF signals. The power amplifier amplifies the RF signals prior to transmission via an antenna.
As is also known, the receiver is coupled to the antenna and includes a low noise amplifier, one or more intermediate frequency stages, a filtering stage, and a data recovery stage. The low noise amplifier receives inbound RF signals via the antenna and amplifies then. The one or more intermediate frequency stages mix the amplified RF signals with one or more local oscillations to convert the amplified RF signal into baseband signals or intermediate frequency (IF) signals. The filtering stage filters the baseband signals or the IF signals to attenuate unwanted out of band signals to produce filtered signals. The data recovery stage recovers raw data from the filtered signals in accordance with the particular wireless communication standard.
As is further known, the signal strength of a signal received by a radio receiver decreases approximately exponentially as the distance between the receiver and the transmitter that transmitted the signal increases linearly. As such, most wireless communication standards prescribe a minimum receive signal strength indication (RSSI) and/or signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at which the receiver must operate, which, along with the prescribed transmit power, effectively establishes the maximum distance between a radio receiver and a radio transmitter. For example, many wireless LAN specifications (e.g., IEEE 802.11a, b, Bluetooth, et cetera) provide a minimum RSSI of −80 dBm with upper power levels of approximately −45 dBm.
As the uses for wireless LANs increase, differing power range requirements are emerging. For instance, wireless LAN applications for computers are requiring a power range of −80 dBm to +4 dBm. Thus, a receiver must be able to accurately process signals over this vast power range. However, since prior applications have a smaller power range that have high power levels of −20 dBm to −45 dBm, most receivers only included gain stages to amplify incoming signals. Thus, even with setting the gain stages at their respective minimum gains, large amplitude signals (e.g., greater than −10 dBm) would saturate the receiver. Once the receiver saturates, it cannot accurately recapture data from the received signals.
Therefore, a need exists for a method and apparatus for attenuating received RF signals in radio frequency integrated circuits (RFIC) and/or radio frequency printed circuit boards.